ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


A  TRIBUTE 

Delivered,  February  14,  1909,  upon  the  Occasion 
of  a  Special  Memorial  Service, 

by 

Rev.  JAMES  W.  LEE,  D.D. 

Pastor,  Trinity  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  South, 
Atlanta,  Ga. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


A  TRIBUTE 

Delivered,  February  14, 1909,  upon  the  Occasion 
of  a  Special  Memorial  Service, 


by 

Rev.  JAMES  W'.  LEE,  D.D. 

V  . 

Pastor,  Trinity  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  South, 
Atlanta,  Ga. 


173.  'Kk  3 
6L5U 


INTRODUCTORY. 


To  celebrate  the  centenary  of  the  birth  of  Abraham 
Lincoln,  a  special  memorial  service  was  held  in  Trinity 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  Atlanta,  Ga.,  on  the  even¬ 
ing  of  Sunday,  February  14,  1909. 

This  same  City  of  Atlanta — the  scene  of  this  unique 
service — had  been  reduced  to  ashes  just  forty-five  years 
ago  by  a  division  of  the  Federal  Army  which  looked 
to  Lincoln  as  its  Commander-in-Chief. 

The  Memorial  Service  was  presided  over  by  an  offi¬ 
cer  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic,  while  seated 
upon  the  platform  and  also  uniting  in  the  service 
was  the  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  United  Confed¬ 
erate  Veterans. 


A  newspaper  account  of  this  service  was  sent  to  Hon. 
Robert  T.  Lincoln,  who  wrote  in  acknowledgment  as 
follows  : 


‘Chicago,  Ill.,  Feb.  20,  1909. 
“  60  Lake  Shore  Drive. 


“  My  Dear  Sir  : 

‘ 1 1  thank  you  very  heartily  for  your  kindness  in  send¬ 
ing  me  the  report  of  the  memorial  service  in  Trinity 
Church  upon  the  anniversary  of  my  father’s  birth.  None 
of  the  occurrences  of  last  week  have  affected  me  so  much 


4 


as  this  meeting,  as  an  indication  of  the  realization  of 
the  hopes  which  I  think  guided  every  act  of  his  while 
President.  It  is  dramatic  that  this  proof  should  come 
from  a  city  destroyed  by  one  of  the  armies  under  his 
supreme  command  and  be  presented  by  Confederate 
soldiers,  listening  with  approval  to  an  address  of  such 
eloquence  and  patriotic  feeling  as  yours.  As  his  son,  I 
am  very  grateful  for  the  meeting  and  more  than  grate¬ 
ful  for  your  distinguished  part  in  it. 

“  As  General  Scully  spoke  of  the  Gettysburg  address 
and  of  the  circumstances  under  which  he  thought  it  was 
written,  I  think  you  will  be  interested  in  knowing  the 
facts  about  it,  as  related  by  my  father’s  Secretary,  Mr. 
Nicolay,  and  I  am  therefore  sending  to  you  a  re-print  of 
an  article  written  by  Mr.  Nicolay  in  1894.  From  it  you 
will  see  that  my  father  probably  wrote  a  short  address 
before  the  beginning  of  the  journey  and  only  changed  it 
slightly  just  before  its  delivery.  I  think  it  improbable 
that  he  could  have  secured  a  minute  to  himself  in  his 
car  filled  with  people  even  to  reflect  as  to  his  words  for 
the  next  day.  Renewing  to  you  the  assurances  of  my 
grateful  feelings, 

“  I  am 

“  Very  sincerely  yours, 

(Signed)  “Robert  T.  Lincoln.” 

The  Rev.  James  W.  Lee,  D.D., 

Atlanta,  Ga. 


PROGRAM. 


Service  in  Trinity  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South, 
Sunday  Evening,  February  14,  1909. 


D.  I.^Carson,  chaplain  of  O.  M.  Mitchel  Post  No.  1, 
Grand  Army  of  the  Republic,  presiding. 

Organ  prelude. 

Music — Choir  of  Trinity  Church. 

Reading  the  Scripture — Rev.  A.  F.  Sherrill,  D.D., 
dean  of  Atlanta  Theological  Seminary. 

Prayer — General  Clement  A.  Euans,  commander-in¬ 
chief  United  Confederate  Veterans. 

Reading — Mr.  Lincoln’s  Favorite  Poem,  “O,  Why 
Should  the  Spirit  of  Mortal  be  Proud?” — Colonel  T.  H. 
Jones,  camp  A,  Wheeler’s  cavalry. 

Reading — Mr.  Lincoln’s  Gettysburg  Address,  Brig¬ 
adier  General  A.  J.  Scully,  United  States  Army,  retired. 

Address — Rev.  J.  W.  Lee,  D.D. 

Hymn,  “My  Country  ’Tis  of  Thee” — Congregation. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2017  with  funding  from 

University  of  Illinois  Urbana-Champaign  Alternates 


https://archive.org/details/abrahamlincolntr00leej_0 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN, 

Address  by  Rev.  James  W.  Lee,  D.D.,  Pastor  of  Trinity 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 


“  All  things  work  together  for  good  to  them  who  love  God,  to  them 
who  are  called  according  to  His  purpose.” — Romans  xiii.,  28. 

In  his  essay  on  German  literature,  Thomas  Carlyle 
declares  that  “there  is  a  divine  idea  pervading  the  vis¬ 
ible  universe;  which  visible  universe  is  indeed  but  its 
symbol  and  sensible  manifestation,  having  in  itself  no 
meaning  or  even  true  existence  independent  of  it.  To 
the  mass  of  men  this  divine  idea  lies  hidden;  yet  to 
discern  it  and  seize  it  and  live  wholly  in  it  is  the  con¬ 
dition  of  all  genuine  virtue,  knowledge,  freedom  and 
the  end,  therefore,  of  all  spiritual  effort  in  every  age.” 

This  is  the  interpretation  given  by  a  master  in  litera¬ 
ture  of  the  words  of  the  text.  The  machinery  of  the 
universe  works  for  good  to  all  those  who  discern  and 
seize  and  wholly  live  in  the  divine  idea  at  its  heart. 
Here  we  have  a  principle  by  which  to  account  for 
the  continuous  activity  and  influence  of  every  great 
man  in  history.  The  universal  order  publishes  larger 
and  larger  editions  of  the  men  who  discern  and  seize 
and  wholly  live  in  the  divine  idea  history  is  gradually 
unfolding.  Because  of  this,  newly-bound  copies  of 
Abraham  and  Moses  and  Isaiah  and  St.  Paul  are  issued 
by  the  wheel  work  of  the  centuries  for  the  readers  of 
every  passing  age.  Those  who  are  the  called  accord¬ 
ing  to  His  purpose  are  such  as  yield  to  the  pressure  of 
the  eternal  intention  of  the  Almighty  and  expend  their 
spiritual  efforts  in  the  direction  it  urges. 


8 


I. 

The  contemporaries  of  a  distinguished  man  can 
not  know  the  place  he  is  to  take  in  history.  They  are 
too  close  to  him  to  see  all  there  is  of  him  if  he  be  really 
great,  and  too  near  to  quite  measure  his  diminutiveness 
if  his  prominence  be  due  to  the  accidents  of  external 
estate  or  official  position.  A  time  exposure  of  nearly 
eight  centuries  was  required  for  Sabatier  to  get  the 
picture  he  took  of  St.  Francis  and  published  in  his  “Life 
of  St.  Francis  of  Assisi.” 

The  clods  that  fall  upon  their  graves  close  the  careers 
of  the  rank  and  file  of  men.  It  is  only  now  and  then 
that  one  of  our  race  appears  on  the  planet  with  wealth 
of  being  stored  in  his  soul  too  great  to  be  locked  inside 
a  tomb,  who  lives  again,  not  only  in  eternity,  but  through¬ 
out  all  time: 

“In  minds  made  better  by  their  presence,  live 
In  pulses  stirred  to  generosity, 

In  deeds  of  daring  rectitude,  in  scorn 
Of  miserable  aims  that  end  with  self, 

In  thoughts  sublime  that  pierce  the  night-like  stars, 

And  with  their  mild  persistence  urge  man’s  search 
To  vaster  issues.” 

Such  a  man  was  Abraham  Lincoln. 

II. 

His  mortal  remains  were  consigned  to  their  last 
resting  place  forty-four  years  ago,  but  the  further  away 
we  get  from  the  day  of  his  funeral  and  from  the  few  feet 
of  ground  enriched  by  his  sleeping  dust,  the  more  clearly 
is  it  understood  that  there  was  little  of  Lincoln  John 
Wilkes  Booth  was  able  to  kill,  and  a  very  small  part  of 
him  his  loved  ones  were  able  to  bury. 


9 


Lincoln  belonged  to  that  class  of  men  who  learn  in 
consecrated  service  the  secret  of  the  resurrection,  and 
who  discover  and  practice  the  method  of  finding  them¬ 
selves  for  this  world  and  the  next,  by  losing  themselves 
before  they  cease  to  breathe.  Lincoln  did  not  wait 
for  the  judgment  trump  of  the  last  day  to  call  him 
from  the  dead.  While  alive  in  the  flesh,  he  conformed 
to  eternal  principles  and  by  them  was  transformed 
into  an  incorruptible  citizen  of  all  the  ages. 

III. 

Not  by  any  process  of  analysis  can  one  deter¬ 
mine  the  particular  gift,  or  power,  or  accomplishment, 
it  was  in  Lincoln  that  won  for  him  the  favor  of  the  years. 
It  is  well  known  that  time  can  neither  be  flattered  nor 
bribed.  Not  without  good  reason  are  favors  shown 
this  mortal  or  that  by  the  tearless  order  of  the  flying 
suns.  When  the  centuries  are  found  conspiring  to 
augment  the  worth  and  fame  of  a  man,  it  may  be  known 
absolutely,  that  he  was  of  value,  beyond  the  capacity 
of  the  time  in  which  he  lived  to  express.  It  is  the  habit 
of  the  universe,  always  and  everywhere,  to  mete  out  to 
every  one  exact  justice.  When,  therefore,  we  see  the 
investment  a  person  makes  of  himself  in  his  own  age, 
constantly  drawing  large  instalments  of  interest  in  suc¬ 
ceeding  times,  we  may  know  that  he  failed  to  get  all 
that  was  due  him  while  he  lived.  The  contemporaries 
of  Bruno  did  not  appreciate  him  sufficiently  to  grant 
him  standing  room  during  his  natural  life.  They  burnt 
him  on  the  Campo  dei  Fiori  in  the  city  of  Rome.  But 
in  four  hundred  years,  the  life  capital  he  left  had  so  in¬ 
creased  in  value  that  his  countrymen  found  the  amount 
large  enough  to  build  him  a  monument,  which  now 


10 


stands  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  spot  from  which  he 
started  to  heaven  in  a  chariot  of  flame  four  centuries 
ago. 

IV. 

Abraham  Lincoln  has  grown  more  during  the 
years  that  have  elapsed  since  he  was  assassinated  than 
any  other  man  of  all  history  ever  did  in  a  half  century 
after  his  death.  It  took  four  hundred  years  in  the  case 
of  Bruno  to  convert  his  pyre  into  his  monument,  but  it  has 
taken  only  fifty  years  in  the  case  of  Lincoln  to  convert 
the  bullet  of  his  assassin  into  many  shafts  of  marble, 
and  into  as  many  monuments  of  affection  as  there  are 
hearts  beating  in  the  breasts  of  civilized  human  beings. 

V. 

How  are  we  to  account  for  this  subtle,  intangible, 
growing  personal  reality,  rising  round  us  like  an  atmos¬ 
phere,  we  represent  to  ourselves  by  the  name  of  Lincoln? 
It  was  not  his  statesmanship.  Hamilton  was  a  more 
brilliant  master  of  the  structure  and  functions  of  govern¬ 
ment.  It  was  not  his  oratory.  He  never  reached  the 
level  of  magnetic  speech  perpetually  maintained  by 
Webster.  It  was  not  simply  his  gift  of  boundless  common 
sense.  In  this  respect,  Benjamin  Franklin  was  his  equal. 
It  was  not  his  devotion  to  the  cause  of  abolition  simply. 
Wendell  Phillips  and  William  Lloyd  Garrison  did  more 
to  create  and  direct  the  moral  conviction  that  gave  to 
the  slaves  their  freedom.  It  was  not  merely  because 
he  was  the  chief  executive  of  the  republic  during  the 
stormiest  period  of  the  national  history,  and  managed 
to  conduct  it  through  the  most  terrific  civil  war  ever 
waged.  There  were  others  who  might  have  guided 
the  ship  of  state  through  the  storms  that  imperiled  its 


11 


existence.  We  must  look  deeper  than  his  words,  deeper 
than  his  deeds,  deeper  than  the  official  position  he  held, 
to  find  the  source  of  Lincoln. 

VI. 

In  the  words  of  the  text,  “All  things  work  together 
for  good  to  them  that  love  God.”  And  in  the  interpre¬ 
tation  of  these  words  by  Carlyle,  we  find  the  principle 
by  the  aid  of  which  we  can  account  for  Lincoln,  and  for 
every  other  man  whose  name  the  passing  ages  can  not 
blot  from  the  memory  of  our  race.  Whoever  in  any 
age  discerns  and  seizes  and  wholly  lives  in  the  divine 
idea  history  is  unfolding  insures  the  publication  of  him¬ 
self  in  larger  and  larger  volumes  with  every  clearer  and 
completer  expression  of  that  idea. 

VII. 

Plato  discerned  and  seized  and  wholly  lived  in  the 
divine  idea  it  is  the  function  of  philosophy  to  interpret, 
hence  speculative  thinkers  for  twenty-five  centuries  have 
kept  his  work  fresh  in  the  memory  of  thoughtful  men. 
Copernicus  wholly  lived  in  the  divine  idea  expressed  in 
the  constellations,  and  henceforth  the  morning  stars 
can  never  sing  together  without  magnifying  the  glory 
of  his  genius.  Darwin,  born  the  same  year,  the  same 
month  and  the  same  day  with  Lincoln,  identified  him¬ 
self  wholly  with  the  divine  idea  expressed  in  the  method 
of  creation,  hence  all  nature,  through  its  flowers  and 
through  its  birds,  will  never  cease  to  fill  the  sky  with 
perfume  and  melody  in  honor  of  his  achievements. 
The  divine  idea  Lincoln  wholly  lived  in  was  not  the  intel¬ 
lectual  aspects  of  it,  with  which  speculative  thought 


12 


is  concerned ;  nor  the  biological  aspects  of  it  with  which 
naturalists  are  concerned;  nor  the  mechanical  aspects 
of  it,  with  which  astronomers  are  concerned;  but  it 
was  the  distinctly  human  aspects  of  it,  with  which  lovers 
and  martyrs  and  heroes  are  concerned.  The  universities 
will  guard  the  fortunes  of  Plato;  the  observatories  will 
keep  fresh  the  memory  of  Copernicus ;  the  naturalists  will 
take  care  of  the  interests  of  Darwin,  but  humanity, 
aching,  struggling,  suffering,  despairing,  triumphing,  will 
recount  to  itself  over  and  over  again,  until  the  last  page 
of  human  history  is  written,  the  courage,  the  patience, 
the  pity  and  the  sacrifice  of  Lincoln.  The  poor  belated 
negroes,  slaves  to  petty  kings  in  Africa,  slaves  to  humane 
masters  in  America,  but  nevertheless  slaves,  until 
Lincoln,  by  a  stroke  of  the  pen,  knocked  the  shackles 
from  off  their  limbs,  will  never  cease,  in  time  nor  eternity, 
to  lift  their  dark  faces  in  gratitude  to  him  as  to  their 
savior  from  bondage. 


VIII. 

Soldiers  in  blue,  and  soldiers  in  gray,  more  of 
whom  now  march  amid  the  hills  of  day  than  drag 
their  weary  feet  over  the  scenes  of  conflict,  are  able  to 
see,  by  the  light  of  a  larger,  sweeter  time,  territory  suf¬ 
ficient  of  the  heart  of  Lincoln  for  all  brave  men  to  stand 
and  love,  and  the  armies  of  Grant  and  the  armies  of 
Lee,  now,  thank  God,  united  on  earth  and  united  in 
heaven,  will  both  regard  the  martyred  president  as  their 
commander-in-chief  to  all  eternity.  The  sections  have 
learned  in  fifty  years  that  it  is  better  to  convert  their 
energies  into  the  flying  shuttles  of  commerce  to  weave 
the  people  together  than  it  is  to  turn  them  into  minie 
balls  to  shoot  the  people  apart.  No  man’s  future  is 
safer  for  the  time  to  come  than  that  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 


13 


He  wholly  lived  in  the  divine  idea  at  the  bottom  of  the 
American  union.  He  identified  himself  with  the  central 
current  of  our  national  life.  We  can  not  move  toward 
the  fulfillment  of  our  destiny  as  a  people  without  per¬ 
petually  witnessing  the  spirit  of  Lincoln,  accompany¬ 
ing  us,  like  a  pillar  of  cloud  by  day  and  a  pillar  of  fire 
by  night.  The  greater  we  become  as  a  power  among 
the  nations,  the  wider  becomes  the  scope  of  our  com¬ 
merce,  the  stronger  becomes  our  influence  for  unity, 
world-wide  and  universal,  the  greater  and  wider  and 
stronger  will  become  Lincoln,  who  sought  in  his  life  to 
harmonize  a  divided  people,  and  dying  left  a  legacy  of 
sympathy  and  tenderness  and  sacrifice  which,  by  its 
“mild  persistence,”  has  re-united  forever  in  the  bonds 
of  undying  love  the  members  of  the  national  household. 

IX. 

It  would  not  be  true  to  say  that  Lincoln  was 
superior  in  this  or  that  respect  to  all  other  men  who 
lived  in  our  country  between  the  years  of  1809  and  1865. 
But  it  is  true  that  he,  more  than  any  other,  charged 
with  the  responsibility  of  national  affairs,  did  discern 
and  seize  and  wholly  live  in  the  divine  idea  it  seems  to 
be  the  purpose  of  Providence  to  realize  through  these 
United  States.  It  was  his  complete  conformity  to  the 
central  purpose  of  this  nation,  as  he  had  light  to  see  it, 
that  gives  him  his  unique  and  growing  place  in  history. 

X. 

The  men  for  whose  good  the  machinery  of  the 
universe  works  and  whose  lives  it  republishes  with  every 
revolution  of  its  wheelwork,  are  not  always  the  strongest 
men  in  intellectual  endowment  or  administrative  ability. 


14 


Nero  had,  perhaps,  had  as  much  or  more  native  ability 
than  Saint  Paul,  but  Nero  threw  himself  across  the  purpose 
of  God,  and  was  ground  to  powder  by  it,  while  Saint  Paul 
directed  his  life  parallel  with  it,  and  hence  lives  in  larger 
and  larger  measure  with  the  gradual  unfolding  of  the 
divine  purpose.  Napoleon  was  a  much  greater  force 
than  Wellington,  but  Napoleon  was  left  discomfited 
and  broken  by  the  roadway  of  events,  while  Wellington 
was  chosen  to  move  on  down  the  years  at  the  head  of 
his  invincible  columns.  Herbert  Spencer  had  intellectual 
ability  equal  to  that  of  Hegel,  but  the  English  thinker 
built  his  system  across  the  track  of  advancing  thought, 
and  had  the  sorrow  of  seeing  it  smashed  by  the  enginry 
of  things,  before  he  died,  while  the  German  thinker, 
lifting  up  his  system  parallel  with  the  universal  order, 
and  hitched  to  the  purpose  at  its  center,  will  enjoy  the 
happiness  of  perpetually  teaching  the  human  mind. 

XI. 

It  often  happens  that  the  noblest  men  discern 
and  seize  and  wholly  live  in  an  idea,  they  take  to  be 
divine,  but  which,  when  subjected  to  the  test  of  time, 
turns  out  to  lead  away  from  the  track  of  history.  The 
real  test,  therefore,  of  the  greatness  of  one  who  has 
played  a  prominent  part  on  the  stage  of  human  affairs, 
is  this:  how  completely  did  he  discern  and  build  upon 
an  idea  moving  toward  realization  in  the  eternities.  A 
great  and  consecrated  man  may  choose  a  promising  idea, 
and  upon  it  as  a  foundation,  build  of  gold,  or  silver,  or 
precious  stones,  or  wood,  or  hay,  or  stubble,  but  inevita¬ 
bly  the  day  of  Judgment  comes,  and  then  his  w^ork  is 
made  manifest,  for  the  day  shall  declare  it.  Every  man’s 
work  is  tried,  and  it  is  known  in  every  case,  finally,  of 


15 


what  sort  it  is.  If  a  man’s  work  abide  which  he  hath 
built  upon  an  eternal  foundation,  he  shall  receive  a 
reward,  both  for  his  work  and  for  the  wisdom  that  guided 
him  in  choosing  the  right  idea  upon  which  to  build. 
But  if  a  good  man’s  work  shall  be  burnt  because  built 
on  a  wrong  idea,  he  shall  suffer  the  loss  of  all  his  effort 
in  the  performance  of  that  work,  but  he  himself  shall  be 
saved  yet  so  as  by  fire. 

Lincoln’s  work  has  stood  the  tests  of  fifty  years  of 
judgment  days.  It  has  been  revealed  through  fire  of 
what  sort  it  was  and  is.  He  is  now  being  rewarded  both 
for  his  work  and  for  the  insight  that  led  him  to  build 
on  an  eternal  foundation.  Those  of  us  who  left  the 
union  fifty  years  ago  were  just  as  good  and  great  and 
consecrated  as  were  those  who  remained  in  it.  Our 
works,  too,  were  of  gold,  and  silver,  and  precious  stones, 
but  the  idea  we  selected  as  a  foundation  upon  which  to 
build  was  not  moving  in  the  track  of  events.  Our 
Southern  Confederacy  has  been  burnt,  but  the  patriot¬ 
ism,  devotion,  consecration,  which  took  form  in  its 
fading  and  passing  fortunes,  are  forever  safe.  So  great 
are  we  as  a  people  that  it  has  taken  only  fifty  sad,  heart¬ 
rending  years,  to  bring  us  to  a  national  level  of  good 
will,  upon  which  it  is  in  the  hearts  of  all  to  give  to  the 
Confederates  the  same  praise  for  their  loyalty  to  what 
they  believe  to  be  right,  and  to  cover  their  graves  with 
flowers  as  deeply  beautiful,  as  to  those  who  fought  on 
the  side  of  victory  and  in  the  direction  of  the  idea  the 
the  God  of  history  is  unfolding. 

XII. 

The  people  of  this  country,  North  and  South,  have 
come  to  a  point  of  view,  high  enough  above  the  level 
of  fifty  years  ago,  to  appreciate  the  good  and  great  men 


16 


on  both  sides  of  the  question  that  separated  them  once 
into  contending  armies.  Think  of  a  service  like  this 
to-night,  held  in  a  city  that  was  burnt  to  the  ground 
forty-five  years  ago  by  order  of  the  commander-in-chief 
of  the  Federal  army,  whose  memory  we  meet  here  to 
honor.  Nothing  like  it  before  ever  took  place  in  all 
history.  It  is  a  strange  and  great  thing  under  the  sun. 
To  what  unexpected  heights  is  this  movement  toward 
fraternity  and  affection  to  move?  How  much  higher 
are  the  waters  of  good  will  to  rise?  If  they  continue  to 
climb  they  will  finally  reach  the  shores  upon  which  New 
York  and  Boston  are  situated,  so  that  a  memorial  serv¬ 
ice  in  honor  of  Jefferson  Davis  will  be  held  in  those 
quarters,  where  they  once  hated  Mr.  Davis  as  thoroughly 
as  we  did  Mr.  Lincoln.  Let  the  waves  of  fraternity 
swell,  until  they  shall  cover  every  patch  of  territory  and 
island  that  separated  us. 

Theodore  Roosevelt,  half  Georgian  and  half  Dutch¬ 
man,  now  the  best  loved  president  who  has  occupied 
his  exalted  position  since  Washington,  when  a  young 
man,  referred  to  Jefferson  Davis  as  the  arch  traitor, 
but  recently  upon  his  return  from  a  hunting  trip  in 
Louisiana,  congratulated  the  people  of  Mississippi  for 
contributing  to  the  country  the  illustrious  name  of 
Jefferson  Davis,  and  praised  them  for  the  honors  they 
had  conferred  upon  that  great  man. 

Charles  Francis  Adams,  only  a  short  time  ago,  made 
the  frank  statement  that  he  was  for  a  long  time  too 
prejudiced  to  read  the  life  of  Mr.  Davis,  but,  finally, 
being  led  to  do  so,  he  declared  that  he  found  his  character 
without  a  blemish. 

The  difference  between  Abraham  Lincoln  and  Jeffer¬ 
son  Davis  was  not  that  they  were  not  both  good  and 


17 


great  men,  but  the  difference  is  that  Mr.  Lincoln  took 
passage  on  a  ship  that  will  sail  the  seas  of  time  forever, 
while  Mr.  Davis  made  the  mistake  of  getting  aboard  a 
vessel  that  was  wrecked,  because  out  of  the  course  mapped 
by  Providence,  as  the  destined  way  for  the  people  of 
this  country  to  voyage. 

When  the  confederates  left  the  sinking  confederacy 
and  walked  up  the  gangway  back  into  the  magnificent 
ship  upon  which  all  our  people  began  the  voyage  to  the 
future  the  great  captain  was  cold  in  death,  but  had  he 
been  alive  he  would  have  shared  his  last  dollar  and  his 
last  drop  of  heart’s  blood  with  the  brave  men  who  had 
been  sailing  in  perilous  seas,  but  who  at  length  were 
coming  back  to  the  vessel  we  will  all  sail  in  to  the  shores 
of  eternity. 

XIII. 

In  his  “Reminiscences  of  the  Civil  War,’’  General 
John  B.  Gordon  relates  a  touchingly  beautiful  inci¬ 
dent,  illustrative  of  the  sentiment  common  deep 
down  in  their  souls  to  the  soldiers  of  both  the  Union 
and  the  Confederate  armies.  The  Northern  troops 
were  on  one  side  of  the  Rapidan  River,  and  the 
Southern  men  were  on  the  opposite  hills  of  the  other, 
when  the  stillness  of  the  April  twilight  was  suddenly 
broken  by  the  notes  of  “  Hail  Columbia,  Happy 
Land.”  In  quick  response  to  this  volley  of  emotion 
from  the  Northern  side  of  the  river,  the  air  was  set 
to  vibrating  by  the  thrilling  strains  of  ‘  ‘  Dixie  ’  ’  from 
the  Southern  banks  of  the  stream.  Then,  as  if 
untouched  by  this  exchange  of  sectional  salutations, 
one  lone  volunteer,  thinking,  doubtless,  of  loved  ones 
at  home,  lifted  his  voice  into  the  immortal  words  of 
“  Home,  Sweet  Home,”  when,  as  if  moved  from 


18 


Heaven,  both  armies  lost  sight  of  all  points  of  the 
national  compass,  and  without  reference  to  who  was 
right  or  who  was  wrong,  without  reference  to  flags 
of  truce  or  terms  of  surrender,  re-established  on  the 
spot,  under  the  skies  of  Virginia,  the  American 
Union,  by  all  getting  together  in  the  universal 
cadences,  wrung  from  the  lonely  spirit  of  John  Howard 
Payne. 

Little  did  those  brave  men  think,  fifty  years  ago, 
when  ceasing  to  swap  lead  long  enough  to  do  a  little 
trading  in  sentiment,  closing  their  transactions  by  all 
getting  together  in  “Home,  Sweet  Home,”  that  they 
were  giving  voice  to  prophecy,  which  those  of  us  who 
meet  here  to-night  have  lived  to  see  fulfilled.  “Hail 
Columbia,  Happy  Land,”  is  now  domesticated  in  the 
South,  and  “Dixie”  is  tumultuously  at  home  in  the 
North. 

Both  purified  from  the  flavor  of  sectionalism  through 
the  wondrous  alembic  of  love  are  parts  of  the  songful 
furnishment  of  every  sweet  home  in  the  Union! 

The  underlying  feelings  at  the  bottom  of  brave 
hearts  on  the  Rapidan  have,  through  deepening  ex¬ 
perience  of  fifty  years,  made  their  way  to  the  top  of 
our  hearts  to-day.  We  are  all  back,  not  merely  in 
song  but  in  fact  in  the  “Sweet  National  Home”  of 
our  fathers,  and  from  thence,  by  the  grace  of  God, 
we  will  never  go  any  more. 


